Indian police charge ex-UN climate chief with sexual harassment

NEW DEHLI: Indian police said Tuesday they had charged the former head of the UN climate change panel Rajendra Pachauri with sexual harassment, following a complaint by an ex-colleague at an environmental think-tank.

Police brought the charges against Pachauri in a Delhi trial court, more than a year after a female employee in her late twenties filed a complaint accusing him of sending inappropriate texts and emails.

“We have filed the charge sheet today and the court will decide when to begin the hearing,” investigating officer Virender Dalal told AFP.

Police have charged Pachauri, 75, with four counts including sexual assault, harassment and criminal intimidation, according to the complainant’s lawyer.

“We will need time to examine the entire document but it states that they have found prima facie evidence,” he added.

Pachauri, who is on bail, denies the sexual harassment charges and has said his emails and mobile phone were hacked.

His lawyer Ashish Dixit said his client would defend the charges and stressed the case still had a long way to go.

“Obviously he is maintaining his innocence. The charge sheet doesn’t make any difference because he has not given his side of the story,” Dixit told AFP.

“The charge sheet is based on the complainant’s statements. Arguments have not been heard from the other side,” he said.

Pachauri, a leading voice on the dangers of global warming, was forced to quit as chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in February 2015 after his colleague at the think-tank filed her complaint.

In July, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) based in New Delhi announced it was replacing Pachauri after a backlash over his return to work while facing the allegations.

A court had barred him from entering the institute’s office for many months following the complaint, but later allowed him to return while still on bail.

Last month his appointment as TERI executive vice chairman caused outrage, forcing the institute, where he had worked for 35 years, to put him on indefinite leave.

Pachauri continues to hold the position, according to the TERI website.

In November, his alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, resigned from TERI, saying it had treated her in the “worst possible manner”, a charge the institute denies.